Zephaniah 3:14-20
December 13, 2009
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Here’s a question for you: “What does Joy look like?” I have known and lived with Joy for almost 40 years so I know what Joy Shih Ng looks like! Recently, our granddaughter Sage started saying to Joy, “You are beautiful.” Sage knows what Joy looks like.
Besides the Joy who sits at the organ, “What does joy look like?” How would you describe joy? How might you paint a picture of it? If you had to come up with a universal symbol, a kind of catch-all image for this universal experience and feeling that we call joy, what would it be?
Is it a mother holding her newborn child? That has to be joy. May it be a loved one who is declared cancer-free? What about when our children who live faraway and arrive home at that moment when you open the front door? Maybe it’s the huge grin on the face of a groom when he catches a glimpse of his bride walking down the aisle on their wedding day? Pure joy.
Joy is an interesting emotion. It’s tough to explain and difficult to put into words, yet, when you see it, it’s unmistakable and when you feel it, it’s unforgettable. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all felt it. So again, how might you describe this thing we called joy? What would you say is the symbol of joy?
Dollar Sign
Some people would argue that coming up with an all-encompassing image of joy is a lot easier than you’d think. In fact, some would say we already have one. It’s called the dollar sign, and –if you think about it—they may be on to something.
Let’s be honest here—who hasn’t thought about hitting the jackpot when you walk through the casino on a cruise ship or being set for life by the lottery would bring about some big-time joy? Or, how about game-show contestants whose faces light up when a big dollar sign pops up to win more money? And you can bet that after a rough financial year, the one thing that will bring sweeping smiles to the faces of retailers around the globe is the sound of cash registers ringing.
Have you noticed that the Staff Love Gift uses big red envelopes so that the check you write can fit in? (Just kidding!)
From the excitement of your first paycheck to that feeling when you find a $5 bill stuffed in some old jeans, it’s hard to argue against the emotional influence of money. Right or wrong, the U.S. dollar, the European euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound and the Chinese yuan are the signs that just might be the best signs of joy.
Many people consider Christmas to be the most joyful time of the year. In fact, according to one popular tune, it’s the “happiest season of all.” Our Christmas joy is often found in charging the credit card with expenses and packing the car with presents. And if you try to tell the kids that this year Santa is forgoing gifts and instead is just giving hugs, see what kind of response you get.
Christmas shopping, though fun, can be difficult. Did you hear about the guy who bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas? A friend of his said, “I thought she wanted one of those sporty-four wheel-drive vehicles.”
“She did,” he replied. “But where am I gonna find a fake Jeep?”
While we all might know better, we often end up making sure that Santa isn’t empty-handed.
Biblical Joy
The Bible paints a different picture of joy. It’s a picture disconnected from the symbols of status and success and divorced from the idea of piling up possessions and stuff. That’s not to say those things are bad. Giving gifts is great, receiving them is really great and money is—in God’s world—often means for temporary peace and stability, blessing and fulfillment. For instance, it’ll take great sums of money for deploying more troops to Afghanistan to ensure world peace or reduce carbon emissions to prevent further global warming or a national health care plan to provide coverage for more people at an affordable price.
But that’s not joy…at least, not biblical joy.
Zephaniah is one of those under-read and underappreciated Old Testament prophets. We can hardly find him in the Bible. He lived during the early part of the reign of Josiah around 640-609 B.C. First of all, he’s bi-racial. His genealogy is presented in the first verse of the book: “The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah” (Zeph. 1:1). He makes a point that he is the great-great grandson of a king, but that his father was African. That’s what Cushi means.
He worked at a time when there was social, political, and religious corruption in Judah. Zephaniah starts things off with a brutally honest reminder to the children of Israel of their need to turn away from the other earthly “gods” they’ve been going after and to say goodbye to the other signs of success they’ve been striving for. If they fail to do so, Zephaniah says, One day all the temporary joys they’ve been chasing will fade away, and it will be time for a necessary day of judgment.
But in the closing words of his God-given message, Zephaniah offers an incredible picture, a beautiful glimpse of real, biblical, God-style joy. He speaks of a day when God no longer has to deal harshly with his people. He speaks of a day when the judgment for pursuing false joys is no longer held against those who have been right with God through the grace of God. He writes of a day when a new King of the people will have entered the midst of the people and through his righteous rule take away all their fears.
Zephaniah speaks of a day when people’s greatest shame will be transformed into shouts of praise because every sin they ever committed against God, every issue in their past that they once thought separated them from God, will have been dealt with and remembered no more by God.
There will be a day, there will be a time, Zephaniah says, when men and women will “sing aloud” and “shout,” where they will “be glad and rejoice” with all their hearts. This true, authentic joy will well up not as a result of piling up enough money or achieving certain levels of success. No, this lasting joy will flow from the fact that God has found his joy in us, in you!
Real joy, biblical joy, comes from knowing without fail that, “The Lord your God is with you” and that “he is mighty to save.” It comes from knowing that God himself delights in you and that “he will rejoice over you”—yes, you and me—“with singing.”
The real reason joy is essential to the celebration of Jesus’ birth is because in his arrival, the baby born in a Bethlehem back alley, God tells us that those Zephaniah-style “joy days” have come! In Jesus’ arrival, the King has come into our midst, and our sins are now forgiven. Your greatest shame, no matter what it is, can now become a cause of praise! Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus his Son, God the Father has forgiven and forgotten it all.
Real Joy
The truth is that so much of what we like to label as “life’s joys” are really just temporary pleasures, stuff that will come and go and makes us feel good only for the moment. Most of us really live rather joyless lives. The reason is simple. Rather than focusing on the true joy found in Jesus that is shared in communion with a congregation of friends and family, we sell out for simple pleasures that are often solitary and momentary.
But at Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of real joy. Sure, you can ascribe joy to money or say it has something to do with success or even that it can come from noble things such as hugging your kids or building houses for the homeless. Those are great, but they’re just pleasures. Proclaiming Jesus’ birth to the shepherds standing in the field, the angel makes it clear that there’s just one symbol, one sure sign, of joy.
Listen to what the angel said: “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).
The beautiful thing is that, unlike everything else in the world, when your joy comes from Jesus, it’s a joy that will never be taken from you. It’s like trying to rip a new toy from a toddler’s hand. Not going to happen.
Apart from Jesus, all the joys of life will someday be stolen, destroyed or simply die off. The money will run out, the kids will stop calling and the cancer can come back. But when we are connected to Christ, the life he gives us lasts forever. The peace he gives us surpasses all understanding and the gifts he offers—such as forgiveness and grace—will never, ever get old and will never require a gift receipt.
Now, this isn’t saying that money and possessions or that presents, parties and showering grandkids in gifts that make annoying noises and drive their parents insane is a bad thing. It’s not. In fact, it’s a beautiful thing. But to celebrate Christmas right, we must remember that they are just temporary things.
As Christians, what makes us different isn’t so much what we do, as if Christianity is simply about morality. It’s who we do it for and where we find our true joy. A Christian community is one filled with men and women who work hard to provide, parents who dote on their children and people who study their Bible. A Christian community gives great gifts, throws great parties and sings favorite carols. But we do it not to bring glory to ourselves or to create our own joy. We love, we work, we sing and we play to the glory of God and in our shared joy from Jesus. That’s who we are.
At our Inquirers Class this year, we talked about whether we see the world as a cup that is half full or half emptied. Anthony Liu and Nate Lee see their lives as half full and maybe even overflowing in joy because of the truth that God’s grace and forgiveness for them will last forever. They are now members of this Christian community known as FCBC with a joy that will never be taken from them. It’s not some temporary joy that gives pleasure only for a moment. But this joy that they have in their lives is knowing that the Lord God is with them and is mighty to save. They know in their hearts that God himself delights in them and that God himself rejoice over them.
Christmas Joy
Some may see it in money. Others might find it in fame or pursue it with possessions. But this Christmas may we be a people who sing because real joy has arrived. May we be a people who give joy to others because God has given us the joy that we need.
By the way, I do know what Joy who sits at the organ looks like. She’s beautiful.
This Christmas, may we do what is often overlooked and underappreciated. Let’s join together and sing with Zephaniah, for our real joy, Jesus, has arrived.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, help us to see true joy in Christ, our Lord and Savior so that we may be joy in your eyes. In this wonderful season of Advent and looking forward to Christmas, we sing with joy for good news has come that brings peace and goodwill for all. In the name to whom we shout for joy, Christ our Redeemer, we pray. Amen.